


Breaking Down and Building Up

by Useless_Chatter



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Aftercare, Diego trying to understand himself, Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Family Healing, Inner Dialogue, Klaus Being Cared For, Klaus Being Loved, Klaus Recovering, Klaus being Klaus, Other, The Beginning of Diego/Klaus... Maybe?, confused feelings, mentions of BDSM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 20:45:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Useless_Chatter/pseuds/Useless_Chatter
Summary: When Klaus is locked away for hours in his room with a guest. Diego and the rest of the family listen as Klaus does some very Klausy things and then witness some very un-Klaus things. His guest is not who they expect at all.





	Breaking Down and Building Up

**Author's Note:**

> I just finished watching The Umbrella Academy and this is what happened. 
> 
> Klaus is by far my forever character!

He knows he should be happy that Klaus is sober, mostly, for the first time in years. But he wishes his brother hadn’t replaced one habit with another. And if he’s wishing for something he wishes his room didn’t share a wall with Klaus'.

Klaus has always been shameless, but this is a whole new level. Diego is going insane listening to the repeated sounds of leather meeting skin and the chorus of Klaus’ broken debauched moans is too much. There are a couple of times when Klaus' cries are so intense he feels the need to intervene, but he doesn’t. Every time he gets up, he hesitates behind the door, hand inches from the doorknob. Each time he stops before he turns it and goes back to his room. It feels like hours before the noises finally stop.

He’s not actually there when it does. At some point, it all becomes too much for him. Listening to Klaus beg and moan, his choruses of, _Oh yes, God please, I’m a bad boy, please, don’t stop, oh God yes, right there_ , is doing strange things to him. It was funny at first, but then Diego felt himself start to stir and what was worse is it happens when Klaus let out a particularly soft and wet whimper. He tells himself that it’s natural, the sounds coming from the room can be anonymous. He tells himself that it’s like listening to porn and that what has him rock hard in his pants. He goes to the bathroom to calm himself down and then heads up to the kitchen. Which thankfully is a safe distance from their bedrooms. He walks in to find the rest of his siblings, well most of them at least. Five, Vanya, and Allison are all seated at the table as mom scurries around the kitchen making food for them. They look at him with varying faces of amusement and annoyance.  
  
“How much longer can he possibly go on?” Vanya asks when Diego finally takes a seat next to her. He rubs his face across his face and says hi to Grace as she greets him.  
  
“Not much, I hope,” Allison says free of judgment and full of impatience. “I really want to lay down.”  
  
“Something tells me that the skinny little freak could take it all day and night,” Five responds.  
  
“What are you all complaining about? Be happy you don’t share a wall with him,” Diego huffs out. “Where’s Luther?”  
  
“He couldn’t handle it. He’s somewhere outside.”  
  
“It’s three in the afternoon for crying out loud,” Five groans in frustration.  
  
Grace feeds them until they're all full and they decide to settle down in the living room. And that’s when they hear it.  
  
“What is that?” Allison says. “Is that singing?”  
  
They all perk up and are completely bewildered when they hear a soft, melodic voice drifting up from their bedrooms.  
  
“I think it is,” Vanya says.  
  
“Listen.”  
  
“ _When the rain is blowing in your face_  
_And the whole world is on your case_  
_I could offer you a warm embrace_  
_To make you feel my love_  
  
_When the evening shadows and the stars appear_  
_And there is no one there to dry your tears_  
_Oh, I will hold you for a million years_  
_To make you feel my love_ ”  
  
It isn’t what they expect to hear, especially since the voice belongs to a woman. And it’s clear to the majority of the siblings that Klaus is “gayer than the day is long” as he once put it. No one is more surprised than Diego. They trip over each other as they try and sneak down and see what exactly is going on. The tiptoe passed Klaus’ room and see an impressive collection of whips, paddles, a swing and many, many sex toys in all shapes and sizes before they get to the bathroom. The door is open, the room is filled with steam, a calming and warm fragrance is spilling out from it. And in the tub, they watch as beautiful olive-skinned women with the most intense green eyes cradles Klaus in between her legs and arms as she softly sings to him while washing his hair.  
  
“What the fu-,” Diego doesn’t manage to finish as Vanya elbows him in the ribs. She brings her finger to her lips. He feels weird about spying on their brother in what is clearly an insanely private moment, but it also feels nice to be doing weird sibling things with the rest of the family. It makes him feel slightly better to think that if Klaus was on the outside of the room with them, he’d be the most excited of them all to do a little snooping.  
  
They watch silently as the woman gently rubs some sort of paste over what are clearly strangulation marks on Klaus’ neck.  
  
“I’m so happy you called me. It’s been too long, baby boy. I wish you’d called me sooner. It wouldn’t have gone this far if you had,” she says in a soothing voice that is filled with undoubtable love. This woman knows Klaus, and apparently know him very well. Diego can’t explain why hearing her call Klaus by that particular nickname makes him clench his fist.  
  
“Well you know me, I only like to do things in extremes,” Klaus responds in a hoarse whisper.  
  
“I know,” she answers a bit sternly. “And that’s part of the problem. You never use the safe word when you get like this and honestly Klaus it kind of scares me.”  
  
She picks up a loofa and begins to run it all over Klaus’ body. Diego has to close his eyes when her hands disappear beneath the water and Klaus lets out a hum of contentment.  
  
“Feels good,” Klaus says, eyes closed pressing down into her hands, wherever they are.  
  
“I know, baby, shhh, let me take care of you. Let me put you back together.” Klaus reaches behind him and pulls the woman down closer to him and nuzzles his face into her neck before kissing it.  
  
“I don’t get it,” Five says as he looks on wide-eyed. “He’s gay.”  
  
“Will the two of you shut up,” Allison quietly hisses at them.  
  
“Come,” the woman says as she stands up, revealing a stunning body. She’s silky smooth, with perfect breast, an amazing ass, her olive skin glows when it catches the light, and for a moment Diego is proud of his brother for being able to land such a gorgeous woman until remembers that this can’t be that.  
  
Klaus stands up and takes her outstretched hand. It takes everything in him not to gasp like his sister when he sees the bruises and welts that litter their brother’s milky skin. He has to fight the urge not to go in there and pummel her for doing that to Klaus because he knows it’s probably exactly what Klaus wanted her to do to him. She gets out first and helps Klaus out. He stands on the rug and waits for her. She’s only out of sight for a few moments before she comes back into view and wraps Klaus is the biggest, fluffiest lilac robe any of them have ever seen.  
  
They quickly scrambled around a corner as she leads Klaus back to his room. They sneak back over to watch. Somehow they’d missed the set up on and next to Klaus’ bed. Klaus’ normally ratty bed is covered in soft blankets of pink and mint and his nightstand has bottles of water and Gatorade on it. She sits him down on the bed and carefully removes the robe from his shoulders. She takes a bottle of lotion and begins to massage Klaus beginning with his feet. By the time she gets to his temples, Klaus is loose and jello like. She lays him down and quickly curls around him as he brings his knees to his chest. “There’s water, Gatorade, and some herbal teas that will help with inflammation and irritation, you know I’m not giving you painkillers so don’t even bother asking. Sleep, rest, you need it.”  
  
“Thank you,” Klaus whispers.  
  
“Let me know if there’s anything else you need,” she says running her fingers through his damp hair.  
  
“Don’t- don’t leave me? Please, Ori? Please stay with me,” the sadness and desperation in Klaus’ voice are devastating. To some extent, they understand how all of it works for Klaus. In some way or another they are all attention starved and touched starved.  
  
“Of course, baby boy. You know I would never leave you,” she says as she makes herself comfortable behind Klaus, wrapping her arms around his waist.  
  
“Sing to me?” Klaus asks.  
  
“What do you want me to sing?”  
  
“I don’t know, anything.”  
  
“ _So lately, been wondering_  
_Who will be there to take my place_  
_When I'm gone you'll need love to light the shadows on your face_  
_If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all_  
_Then between the sand and stone, could you make it on your own_  
  
_If I could, then I would_  
_I'll go wherever you will go_  
_Way up high or down low, I'll go wherever you will go_  
  
_And maybe, I'll find out_  
_A way to make it back someday_  
_To watch you, to guide you through the darkest of your days_  
_If a great wave shall fall and fall upon us all_  
_Then I hope there's someone out there who can bring me back to you…_ ”  
  
She stops and looks over Klaus’ face. He’s asleep and he looks peaceful, more than any of them have seen him look since they were kids. Diego can’t help but focus on where their hands are laced together over Klaus’ heart.  
  
“I’m so sorry about Dave,” they hear ‘Ori’ whisper into Klaus’ ear. “You can’t imagine how much it hurts me to know you found the one and lost him. I will always be here for you. I will always take care of you. That was the deal, even when you forget, I never do.”  
  
They watch as she quickly wipes away the tears running down her face with her free hand. Diego’s stomach is in knots. They shouldn’t be here. They shouldn't be listening to this. It feels so wrong. It hurts him that some stranger knows their brother better than he ever has, and it kills him to know that he, they, have no one to blame but themselves. Instead of banning together against their father, they had abandoned each other and went off on their own selfish ways.  
  
“We should go, this doesn’t feel right,” Diego chokes out. The rest look at him in agreement as they leave and make their way back up the stairs to the living room.  
  
“Where have you guys been?” Luther asks when they all shuffle in looking like they came back from a funeral.  
  
“Nowhere,” Allison mumbles.  
  
“Sounds like Klaus finally stopped, thank God,” Luther says.  
  
“Shut up!” Diego shouts. Luther looks at him like he’s crazy.  
  
“Just don’t,” Five says. “It’s been a strange day and Klaus… let’s just leave him alone.” He pats Luther on the shoulder, before disappearing.  
  
“What? I’m so confused,” he says looking at the rest of them.  
  
“Just, don’t worry about it,” Vanya explains. “Klaus has an important guest over, who we are all going to be extra nice to.”  
  
“I still don’t…” Luther continues.  
  
“Don’t worry about it,” Allison says patting the seat next to her.  
  
Diego feels like his skin is crawling. They should have never, he -HE- should have never spied on Klaus. The whole thing was running through his brain on repeat and settling in his gut like a bag of rocks. The scent of her, of her oils and lotions, wafted up to them, and he knew he had to get out.  
  
“What’s that smell? It’s nice,” Luther states.  
  
Diego jumps up and stomps out of the room.  
  
“What’s his problem?”  
  
“Nothing,” Allison says drawing Luther’s attention back to her.

* * *

  
“That smells amazing,” Five says from his spot at the chess table. “Is Mom making dinner?”  
  
“No,” Vanya answers. “She’s upstairs.”  
  
“Then who’s cooking?” Allison says.  
  
All five of them get up and make their way down to the kitchen. That’s where they find Ori cooking at the stove, barefoot, in a pair of Klaus’ sweat pants and a lace crop top that is more a bra than anything else. Her hair is down from the bun she previously had. It’s long and dark, hanging in soft curls along her back.  
  
“Oh hi,” she says turning to them when she hears them with a soft smile on her face. She puts down the spoon and extends her hand out to them. “I’m Klaus’ friend, Oriana, I apologize for all the noise we made early. I hope dinner is enough to make up for it.”  
  
Allison is the first one to take her hand and say, “It’s not a problem. We’re kind of used to strange sounds coming out of Klaus’ bedroom.”  
  
It makes Oriana smile. “That’s in no way surprising.”  
  
“You must be, Five, Vanya, Luther,” she says as she points to them one at a time before she stops on Diego. “And you, of course, are Diego.” Her smile widens as she looks at him. “I’ve heard so much about you through the years. Klaus talks about you guys all the time. It’s so nice to finally meet all of you.”  
  
She shakes their hands one at a time. Diego’s relieved when Vanya asks her how she knows Klaus beyond the obvious.  
  
“I met Klaus a long time ago. He was this scraggly teenager and I suppose I wasn’t far from that either. We met while we were squatting in an old abandoned factory. We connected. We’d both run away from painful homes. That winter was rough, but we made it through together. Klaus was already pretty deep into his habit, and as much as I tried to get him to stop, the only thing I could really do was keep us fed and clothed. Klaus was, IS, my best friend. I managed to get this job and it changed my life. After some time I was able to make enough to get us a place to live. Things were looking up, but Klaus is haunted, literally and figuratively, not that I have to tell all of you that. And after a while, Klaus couldn’t do it anymore. He couldn’t stay in one place and the drugs well it just spiraled and I got tired of kicking random men out of our place almost every night. No matter what I did I just couldn’t break through to him anymore. We started fighting like crazy and then one night he was just gone.”  
  
She looked mournful like she felt responsible for Klaus’ poor choices. Diego knew the feeling well.  
  
“It didn’t see him again for two years. By that point, I had made a name for myself. I opened my own club. That’s where we reconnected. He stumbled into my club one night. Honestly, for a second I thought I was seeing a ghost. He was a wreck. He was so far beyond rehab I had to take him straight to the hospital. He got clean, at least for a while, and we got close again. We tried to figure out another way to keep the ghosts at bay. I went against all my own rules and codes for him. And in the end, it helped him, just not with the ghosts and he fell back into his old ways. We’ve stayed in contact, but he still disappears for long stretches at a time… Mostly when he feels like his disappointing me or feels guilty.”  
  
“Wow, we had no idea, Klaus never said anything about you,” Allison says.  
  
“Not surprising, he plays things pretty close to the vest,” Ori states.  
  
“What did you mean when you said you went against your own rule?” Diego asks, surprising himself.  
  
“Well, in case you haven’t understood, I run a a very specific type of club. I have strict rules about the relationships that happen between the clients and the workers at my club and I would never allow one of the workers to engage in anything with someone they had a personal relationship at my club. If they want to do those things, they have to do them on their own time. It’s too messy, lines get blurred. Work has to be work and everything else has to stay at home, but I made an exception for Klaus.”  
  
“Why?”

Oriana lets out a little laugh before she responds.  
  
“Well… because I love him. We all do things we things we know we shouldn’t for the people we love. Klaus is family. He’s the only family I have. And no one knows what he needs like I do, at least that’s what I told myself when I didn’t give him to one of my guys. It was unprofessional and I know you guys must think it’s insane because Klaus is gay and I’m a woman, but it’s not like that… I don’t want him in a romantic way. It’s just…”  
  
He feels worse now that he knows. Klaus has an incredibly complex relationship with this woman. It far beyond what he can truly wrap his mind around. The whole thing makes him uncomfortable, and not because of all the sexual aspects about it, but because she’s right. No one knows what Klaus needs like her.  
  
“You don’t have to explain yourself to us,” Luther says surprising them all. “It’s none of our business and if you love our brother and you take care of him then that’s all we need to know.”  
  
“Thank you,” she says, her eyes a bit glassy. “I was really nervous about meeting all of you. When Klaus said he was back here with the rest of you I didn’t know what to think.”  
  
“We’re happy you came,” Five says. “And dinner smells amazing!”  
  
“Oh, I’m making coconut curry Mahi Mahi, with rice and grilled mixed veggies with pineapples. It’s one of Klaus’ favorites. I hope you all enjoy it. If you don’t mind I’m going to take some for Klaus and myself and eat alone with him.”  
  
“Wow! That sounds delicious,” Vanya tells her. “And of course we wouldn’t mind.”  
  
“Thanks, you know it’s just that he’s still sleeping and I don’t him to have to leave bed. He needs all the rest he’ll allow himself.”  
  
“Of course,” Luther agrees.  
  
Diego watches as she loads up on of Grace’s serving trays with enough food for Klaus and herself, before wishing them a good night.  
  
“Oh and there’s a carrot cake in the refrigerator for dessert,” she calls out to them as she leaves.  
  
They all help in setting the table.  
  
“Well, that was interesting, to say the least,” Allison says looking around at all of them.  
  
“I like her,” Luther says.  
  
“If she’s as good at her job as she is at cooking then I can see why Klaus was making all those sounds,” Five says as he spoons food into his mouth.  
  
They all burst out in laughter, all except Diego. The food is delicious, he can’t deny that and he has no reason not to like her, but he just can get himself to.  
  
“And you know if she helps Klaus stay sober than she’s okay in my book,” Vanya adds.  
  
The rest of his family stays in the kitchen laughing and playing games as he wanders away. He ends up back at Klaus’ room, where he sees his brother is awake and smiling. He’s laughing around a mouth full of food. His eyes are bright as he and Oriana sit and watch some comedian on the tiny television.

**Author's Note:**

> So this story started out in a very different place then it ended. I'm not quite sure what happened. I was just as surprised by the direction this story took as the rest of the Hargreeves. It started out in a very Klausy place and then ended up being very soft and gooey. It started in a place where Diego was figuring out how he felt, and it still kind of is, but I guess my brain just wanted Klaus to get some of the loving and care that he deserves. As for Ori, being a woman I felt that Klaus is the type of person to always be doing the exact opposite of what you would expect from him. I also wanted him to have a relationship that didn't have any romantic possibility. Those can be so messy and I wanted him to have someone who was devoted to him through love and friendship and not messy 'does he love me or doesn't he' type relationship.
> 
> I don't know if this is going to be a stand-alone or if I'm going to continue on. Let me know if you have any ideas.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it! Please leave some love!


End file.
